A Christmas Carol POTO Style!
by The Real Christine Daae
Summary: A strange twist on a holiday classic. The Dicken's tale of A Christmas Carol is done by our favorite POTO cast. Read and Review!
1. Christmas Eve Begins

This is a Christmas story I wrote last year but didn't post it until Christmas Eve so many people did not get to read it.  
This is another of my Christmas Phantom crossover stories. The first I wrote 'A Phantom Christmas' was one meant to bring people into the holiday mood. I was watching A Christmas Carol the other night and I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if I took the same principle for the story and added it to the Phantom of the opera. I must warn you, some parts of this are rather sad, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!  
  
I don't own the characters in this story nor do I claim rights to the ideas for Charles Dickens' writings...   
  
  
  
  
  
  
The clock in the foyer chimed nine o'clock and Christine glanced out the window. No sign of Raoul yet. It was the day before Christmas and he was still at his social meeting with his rich friends. Christine had once again refused to accompany him to the party, insisting that she was not treated as though she were welcome. He kissed her on the forehead and left, saying he understood, but had to go anyway.  
  
It had almost been a year since the ordeal at the opera, and Christine had not been back since. She lived in Raoul's house for the most part, since the night he took her away, but at her insistence and his disappointment, they still were not married. Christine ventured to say at first that she needed time to think about all that had happened and let it all settle and he had agreed to that, but as time went on, Christine still did not feel right about the marriage. Raoul's family could not cut him off financially as they had once threatened because they were not yet married, but because she lived in their estate home, they gave Raoul much grief about the situation, to which he was growing more and more frustrated.   
  
Christine had come to see what kind of life they would lead. Even if they were married, Christine would remain a social outcast and in any public situation she would be forced to endure the fake smiles and lying gestures of Raoul's associates and friends because she was not rich, and had performed as a common chorus girl at the opera. With every passing day, she felt the urge to run away from the life that she now knew, but where could she go? What was she to do? The opera would certainly never take her back after all the trouble that ensued on her behalf at the hands of Erik, the Phantom.  
  
Erik. A wistful smile of grief and regret spread itself across her face as she readied herself for bed. She did not figure Raoul would be home anytime soon, so she might as well not wait up for him. She crossed the hall and told their maid to prepare the house for the night, she was going to sleep early. She closed the bedroom door behind her and slipped between the cool sheets, hoping to fall asleep quickly so she would not notice Raoul when he did finally return. No doubt, he would enter her room, kiss her forehead goodnight, and venture off to his own chambers to sleep off the liquor he had consumed at the party, which was his usual wont.   
  
As Christine lay there contemplating her fate, restless with the memories of the past and the uncertainty of the future, she saw a light come on under her door. Unsure why, she twisted into her pillow to pretend to be asleep. She was not in the mood to hear Raoul's apologies for being out so late on a night meant to be spent with your closest friends and loved ones. She heard heavy footsteps cross the room and someone sit down on the bed.   
  
"Christine."  
  
Christine sat up in bed, her heart pounding at the voice of the person by her side. She looked in the darkness of the room to see a brilliant shine figured around a person whose voice she recognized as her fathers!  
  
"Father? Is it really you? No! It cannot be, you're dead!"  
  
Her father smiled at her and laid his hand down upon hers, but she did not feel it.   
  
"Christine, it is me. Please don't be afraid."  
  
"Father, are you a ghost?"  
  
"Yes, I am," he said, "But more importantly, I am your guardian angel"  
  
Christine leaned forward to hug her father's image, but her body passed through his as though it were nothing more than a chilled mists on a winter morning.   
  
"Christine," he began, "I have come here tonight to warn you."  
  
"Warn me? Of what? I don't understand."  
  
"The life you are leading is not the one you should be. Out of remorse and regret for your past deeds, you are condemning your life, and the life of others to a fate that should never be. Tonight, you will be visited by three spirits. Listen to them, they will show you things you may have forgotten, things you should know, and things that might be."  
  
"Father..."   
  
"I know things have been difficult for you since I died, but please know that I am always with you."  
  
Christine watched him rise to leave and she cried out after him, "Father! Don't leave me again!"  
  
"I have to go now," he replied, not seeming to hear her. He stepped through the thick wooden door and disappeared before her very eyes. 


	2. Christmas Past

Christine, unsettling by the appearance of her Father's ghost and his message to her frightened her. She got out of bed and went downstairs insisting that she had dreamed it all. She made a cup of hot tea and sat sipping it at the kitchen table. The longer she sat there, the more she believed she had been dreaming, but she still could not shake the words he had spoken. If she were indeed dreaming, then her subconscious was trying to tell her something. She heard the clock in the foyer chime ten o' clock. Still no sign of Raoul. He would probably be out until well after midnight. He usually was.   
  
She went to the stairs and started to ascend them up to her bedroom when she saw a figure standing in the darkened hallway below.  
  
"Raoul?" she called, thinking it was he and she had just not heard him enter when she was making a racket in the kitchen.  
  
"No Christine. I am not Raoul," the figure stepped out of the darkness into the light of her candelabra and stood before her. He was dressed in a long crimson robe and had a deathly pallor spread across his unusual face.  
  
"Who are you? What are you doing in my house?"  
  
The figure took a few slow steps towards her and spoke at long last, "Did your father not tell you of my coming? Did you not know that you were to be visited?"  
  
Christine, shocked to realize that she had not dreamt the appearance of her dead father's ghost answered him, "Yes he did tell me. And I know why you are here, but who are you?"  
  
"I am the ghost of Christmases past."  
  
"And what are your intentions with me?"  
  
"Come with me and I will show you," he replied, "Touch my hand and I will show you my intentions."  
  
Christine was absolutely terrified, but she crept down the stairs to the smiling apparition and took his hand. A cold gust of wind hit her in the face and she felt herself leave the ground. When she opened her eyes again, she was standing in snow, but was not cold, outside a house she would recognize anywhere.  
  
"This is..."  
  
"Yes, this is your home where you grew up in Sweden."  
  
Christine peered through the window of the house and was suddenly transported inside. She saw herself playing on the floor with a doll and their cat. She knelt beside her child self and turned towards the spirit.  
"Does she not see me?"  
  
"These are mere shadows of the past. They are unaware of the future."  
  
Christine watched the child image of her own self dance across the room and hop into her father's lap with a squeal of delight. "Oh Papa! This will be the most wonderful Christmas ever!"  
  
"I know it will be! Now run along and help your mother in the kitchen like a good little girl."  
  
"Okay Papa," she replied and ran into the other room.  
  
Christine followed the girl and fell to the floor as she gazed on her own mother, just as she remembered her.  
  
"Oh Christine! You look so pretty in that new dress! You can help me, but be sure not to get it dirty. You must look well for church in the morning!" her mother exclaimed as she helped her daughter onto a chair to reach the counter.  
  
"Spirit, why have you brought me here?"  
  
"To show you that your childhood was not always as sad as you remember it."  
  
Her mother and the child went to the other room to join her Papa and little Christine dashed to the Christmas tree. "Oh Mama, can't I open just one present early? Please?"  
  
Her mother smiled at her and said, "Well, I supposed you can open just one tonight."  
  
Little Christine squealed with delight as she grasped a package in her chubby little hands and tore into it. She pulled out a red scarf that her mother had knitted for her.  
  
"It might be a little big for you, but it will match your dress so well for the church ceremony tomorrow," her mother said, hugging her daughter, "Merry Christmas darling."  
  
"Merry Christmas Mama!"  
  
The spirit took Christine's hand and once again she found herself transported through time. When she opened her eyes, they had not moved from the spot, but the scenery had changed. The house they stood in now was dark and gray. There were not festive decorations hanging and no wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. Christine heard a cough from upstairs and followed it.  
  
She pushed the door open and saw her mother lying on the bed, her child self and her Papa sitting by her side. Her mother was now a shriveled reflection of the year before when she had been bubbly and beautiful. She grasped the child's hand and choked out, "You must take care of your father now, and be a brave little girl."  
  
"Mama, no! You can't go away now."  
  
"I'm sorry my angel, but my time has come. Please take care of him. Promise me you will look after your papa."  
  
She smiled weakly then closed her eyes forever.  
  
Christine cried at the sight of the painful memory and turned angrily to the spirit. "Why did you bring me here to see this? Does it amuse you to hurt people like so?"  
  
The Spirit looked on her without moved emotion, "I brought you here to show you something you had forgotten. Your mother made you very happy and you loved her dearly. Come, there is much more to show you."  
  
"No, no more! I don't want to see anymore!" she cried, but she took his hand anyway, wanting to escape the scene before her.   
  
They were whisked away through the sands of time to a more recent past. Christine recognized it at once. They were standing in her flat in Paris, and her father was on the bed dying.  
  
"No, I won't look. I won't watch my Father die again as well!" Christine cried out.  
  
The spirit took her shoulders and turned her towards the scene of her father, "You will look and you will understand that everything that you see tonight has already happened and there can be nothing to change these events. You must also realize that you are not at fault for his death. I know you blame yourself every day for this, but he died out of no cause of anything you did."  
  
Christine watched her sixteen-year-old figure leaning over her father weeping and she begged, "Please, take me away from this! I cannot bear any more."  
  
"Very well," he replied, "but I have one more thing to show you."  
  
Christine nodded her head and took his hand one last time. Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest when she heard his voice. She opened her eyes to find herself in her dressing room at the opera. She was witnessing one of her music lessons.  
  
"Angel, please sing to me one more song," she begged.  
  
Erik's voice rang out though the mirror, "Anything you wish. Anything at all." He began to sing an Italian love song, which made Christine weep at the memory, of how it all happened.  
  
"Spirit, why did you bring me here?"  
  
"I brought you here to show you, that when you were with Erik, before the innocence of his façade was destroyed, you did love him. As much as you try to deny it, I know you love him still."  
  
"I want to call out to him now and tell him that, but I know he could not hear me."  
  
"That is true," the spirit said, "but remember, these are things that you must stop regretting. Nothing can be done to change the past. Our time here has faded."  
  
Christine now realized the shadow her herself and of Erik were now gone from the room and the spirit before her had aged considerably before her eyes. "What will happen now? Am I to return to the present time now?"  
  
"Yes, come with me."  
  
When Christine came to once again, she was back in her bedroom, tucked into her bed as though she never left it. She called after the spirit, but she knew he was gone. She left the comfort of her blankets to tease the fire in the hearth and took up residence in the chair next to it. She knew there would be another spirit coming and wondered what painful things he would show her next. 


	3. Christmas Present

Christine sat crying and reminiscing. How could she have forgotten her mother so much? She was only six when she died, but she had promised to always care for her father. The spirit was right; she did blame herself for his death. She felt like she had broken her promise to her mother to always look after and care for him. When he had fallen ill, she felt like it was her fault.   
  
When the clock in the foyer struck eleven she stood up expectantly. She knew the other ghost had already come. She could see a bright light shining downstairs and followed it out of her room. In the middle of her living room sat a rather large man in heavy winter cloaks. He laughed when he saw her and she entered the room as he spoke, "Come in Christine. Don't be afraid! I am the ghost of Christmas present."  
  
Christine nodded her head and said, "Yes, you must be. Are you going to take me away and show me things as the other did?"  
  
"Yes, are you ready?"  
  
"I supposed I don't have a choice." Christine went to him and he kindly took her hand. Once again she was thrown into the wind to cross space, but not time.   
  
They stopped outside Meg Giry's house. Christine peeked into the windows and could see all her friends from the opera gathered around the piano singing Christmas carols as Mme Giry played for them. Christine and the ghost were transported inside their home and she looked around in excitement at all the people she saw.  
  
"Look, there's M. Reyer and M. Firman! And all my friends from the ballet!" she exclaimed.  
  
"Yes," the ghost said, "They are all the people you should be spending time with this holiday instead of worrying what your fiancé will think."  
  
Christine listened to their conversations; eagerly wishing they could see her and she could exchange thoughts with them.  
  
"Well, I think the production will go marvelously if they could find a decent prima donna," Meg said to one of the other girls.  
  
"Yes," the girl agreed, "There hasn't seemed to be such a crowd drawn since your friend, what's her name sang at the opera."  
  
"Now, now," Giry defended, "you know she is much better off with her fiancé than on the stage performing. She has much more money now than she could ever care to spend."  
  
"Well, money isn't everything. Couldn't you try to convince her to return, you know the managers want her back, despite all the gossip about the ghost that still exists."  
  
Meg said, "I've tried, but she simply won't go against the Vicomte's wishes. I just wonder why they still have not been married."  
  
"I know what you mean. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn't hesitate one moment more!"  
  
They all laughed and joined the others in a dance as Meg's mother played a livelier tune on the old piano.   
  
Christine turned towards the ghost and said, "I can't believe I have fallen so far out of touch and yet they still remember me."  
  
"Ah," the ghost replied, "True friends are the most difficult to lose, no matter how hard you try to avoid them. If they truly care, they will always welcome you back."  
  
Christine nodded her head in agreement and continued to watch her friends enjoy themselves. The ghost finally touched her arm and said, "It's time to go. There is much more you need to see tonight."  
  
They traveled on the wind quickly through the cold Parisian streets to another house where the social excitement was not quite as boisterous as the last party they witnessed. The guests were all dressed in their finery and talked in low tones in small gatherings around the large room. A small quartet orchestra played lightly in one corner of the room. Christine walked amongst them, still in wonderment that they could not see her and she laughed as she realized that if she were, they would see her in her nightgown and slippers.  
  
She heard Raoul's name being spoken in one group of rather snobbish looking people, so she ventured closely to listen to their conversation.  
  
"Honestly I don't know what he is doing with her. He is one of the countries most handsome and eligible bachelors with the finest estates and he has saddled himself with that common baggage," a rather heavily painted lady stated, as she sipped her wine.  
  
"Oh come now, Marie. The boy is in love. Simply indulging a childhood fantasy. When he becomes bored with her, he will simply kick her to the street like the harlot she is, and leave her for someone more deserving. Someone like our little Michelle. I know he has taken quite the liking to her and she is rather fond of him. See there?"   
  
He gestured across the room, where Christine looked and saw in horror, her own Raoul speaking softly into a rather beautiful girl's ear. She giggled and smiled shyly as he took her hand and kissed it. Christine's blood boiled at the sight she witnessed and she felt the anger of betrayal rise within her. Raoul was cheating on her! He claimed to love and adore her so much, yet he would leave her at home alone to go off with some little frill at one of his friends' parties. No wonder he hadn't put up much of a fight when she suggested that she should stay home. How long had this been going on, she wondered?  
  
She walked across the room to his side to try and hear what he was saying to him, but unable, she tried to slap him instead. Her had passed directly through his face and the girls. They sneaked off into the conjoining room to be alone as Christine watched horrified that he would ever betray her.   
  
What had it all been for? She could have been with Erik all this time and much happier if he had not insisted that she go away with him!  
  
The ghost lightly touched her shoulder as the tears spilled down her face and she followed him silently to see one more sight.  
  
A stab of chilled wind bit through her thing nightdress but she did not feel cold. Her feet touched the slabs of stone she knew so well as she ventured alongside the opera's lake. She knew exactly where they were but could not bear to see why.  
  
"No, spirit! Please don't show me Erik. I couldn't bear it!" she pleaded.  
  
"I'm sorry, but this is necessary for you to witness."  
  
Christine entered Erik's home through the wall. There was no need to locate the door. The home was a shambles. Furniture strewn here and there and piled in great heaps in the corners of the room. She saw that the piano in the corner had quite a layer of dust on it from neglect and his beautiful music had been torn to shreds, which now lay scattered across the rug. Then she heard a sob from the next room, Erik's room.  
  
Christine walked in to find an even larger mess, and in the middle, the crouching figure of her dark beloved. He was curled up in a ball on the remains of what looked to be the padding of his coffin. He rocked back and forth, whimpering and crying, although she could see no tears. He seemed to have wasted away to practically nothing since she left. Christine went to him and tried to put her arms around him as he cried out her name in the darkness.  
  
"Erik, what have I done to you? I should have never left you!" she cried over him.  
  
The spirit came behind her and said, "Christine, these are things as they are today. Nobody but you can change them."  
  
"Will Erik live?"  
  
"Unless these events go unchanged, music shall never again be heard in these depths of the opera," He beckoned her to follow him. "It's time to go now Christine. I have shown you all you can see."  
  
Christine rose to follow him, but he was already gone. She looked back and Erik had disappeared as well.   
  
"Wait, come back!" she called to the ghost. "How am I to find my way home?"  
  
There was no answer in the empty room where she stood. A dark shadow fell across her and she backed away in fright. 


	4. Christmas Future Finis

The dark figure stood foreboding and grim against the blackened scene in which she stood. His cloak and hook concealed his features, but a long bony hand beckoned her to follow.  
  
Christine stood her ground and said, "Are you the ghost of Christmases future?"  
  
The hooded spirit nodded slowly and once again signaled for her to follow. She crept behind him, now truly afraid as he led her to Erik's boat on the lake's dock. He rowed silently in the darkness to show her the future she feared.  
  
"Where are you taking me?" Christine asked. "What horrible things are you to show me?"  
  
He never spoke, but finally stopped rowing and pointed a finger across the lake. There in the dim candlelight she could make out a bare skeleton lying on the shore. She did not have to ask she knew at once that it was Erik. He was alone, and she could do nothing to save him. She cried out his name, and her voice echoed in the darkness.   
  
"Tell me I can change his fate. Tell me it's not too late!" she sobbed.  
  
Again, the cloaked ghost said nothing but silently rowed, until she realized they were no longer on the lake. She found herself sitting in Raoul's home, only it had changed. There were no maids or servants bustling about. Everything was cold and dark and all the curtains were drawn. She followed the light into the next room where she could see the fireplace was lit and then she saw herself sitting in a rocking chair alone. Christine saw that she looked incredibly aged and her hair had begun to thin. She was bony and her hands shook as she tried to knit a small garment, as though she had not gotten enough nutrition.   
  
A loud voice shook the timbers and made both Christine's jump at the sound. Christine saw her future self begin to rock furiously in her creaking chair as she saw Raoul enter the room angrily.  
  
"I thought I told you never to be seen outside this house ever again!" Raoul yelled.  
  
"Raoul, I'm sorry..." the frail little Christine replied.  
  
"I'm not looking for apologies, I want answers! Why were you seen in town today? Don't you know that people already talk enough without you provoking their gossip? I have to hear about it all day!" Raoul went to her chair and roughly pulled her out of it by the arm. "Now explain yourself."  
  
"Raoul, I'm sorry. I know you don't like me going out, but I had to. I had to go and see the doctor and you weren't here to send for him for me."  
  
"A doctor? Why on earth would you need to go and see a doctor?" He demanded as he went to the hearth to pour himself a drink of brandy.  
  
"I wasn't feeling well and I..."  
  
"I suppose you are going to blame me that we have no money to eat and that you were feeling weak again. Need I remind you that it is your fault we have no money! If it weren't for you, my family wouldn't have disinherited me from the estate. It's a wonder they left us a place to live, no thanks to you!"  
  
Christine watched horrified as she saw Raoul strike her future-self across the face. He had obviously been drinking long before he came home. As Raoul started to chase after her, she ran right through Christine and suddenly Christine was she. Raoul chased her up the stairs and finally grabbing her hair, pulled her back down. When Christine landed with a dull thud on the floor, she heard nothing. There was no sound of Raoul, chasing her, no wind blowing outside the condemned home.  
  
She sat up slowly and then she heard the clock in the foyer strike twelve o' clock. She was back in her room at Raoul's chateau! She breathed a sigh of relief and went to the window to gasp in the fresh cool air. It had all been some sort of horrible nightmare. She wasn't dead! Raoul hadn't pushed her down the stairs! As the moments ebbed away, the relief she felt increased, along with her clarity of mind. She knew what she had to do.  
  
A few moments after she had dressed, she heard a door open and shut quietly downstairs. Raoul was finally home. 'I hope he had a good time at the party' she thought to herself as she made her way down the stairs with her suitcase.  
  
"Christine! What are you doing awake?" Raoul asked, puzzled by seeing her dressed. Then he saw the bag in her hand and he grew quiet.  
  
Christine walked slowly towards him and in an almost regal manner said, "Raoul, I know you don't love me anymore. You might have thought that you did, but now I can see that I am only fooling myself and holding you back by staying here."  
  
He started to say something, but Christine just leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Goodbye Raoul. Wish me luck and be happy for me!"  
  
Raoul stood completely bewildered as he watched Christine walk out the front door and close it behind her in the cold winter's night air.  
  
Christine walked swiftly through the streets of Paris to the Opera house. In her pocket she clutched a large iron key, which she had kept all these months. She only hoped it was not too late!  
  
As Christine entered Erik's home, she found it the same way she had seen in her travels with the spirit of Christmases present. She picked her way through the shambles to Erik's room where she had seen him last. Her heart sank as she realized her was no longer in the room. Kneeling to the floor in the spot she had seen him crying, she touched the spot to discover it was still fairly warm. Her head jerked up as she heard a sound behind her.  
  
"Christine?"  
  
With tears in her eyes, she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him. "I love you Erik. I'll never leave you again!" 


End file.
